Family Rules

I absolutely love this. Enough that I thought you should know the expectations of our family. From top to bottom it is everything our family is.  I love it and hope that as we all grow older together, these things stay the focus of our family.  <3 br="br">

School Has begun!

Today was our first day of school!  Kaylee is in first grade, Camden is in preschool (4 years old) and Kinston isn't in school yet!  However, he LOVES to work with us and does a great job. They did a great job today.  We all jumped right in the swing of things and the day went very smooth!

We recently redecorated our homeschool spot :) You'll see the newly painted school on the wall, blackboard and the shelving organization!  It makes the kids feel very "at school" while "at home" ~ I like to make it as fun as possible for my little kiddos!

We decorated for fall today, Camden and Kaylee colored the trunk of the tree and then Kaylee enjoyed hanging all of the leaves. We plan to decorate for the seasons and holidays! It will be very fun to decorate for Christmas in a few months! 

Our homeschool week will be Monday through Friday!  Our goal is to be finished by lunch. On Fridays we are planning to have school in the morning and then science in the afternoon! Time for experiments and projects along with field trips!  In October we are going to learn a lot about the election. Seems important, even though they are so young. The next election will occur when Kaylee is in 5th grade! Boy, does that put time into perspective!

Check back often, I'm going to try and do better about blogging!  I didn't make it here during the summer! Seems we were so incredibly busy!

Hope you had a great summer, full of memories and great time with family and friends!  We are looking forward to the holidays!

Summer has began!

Yesterday, Kaylee finished testing for Kindergarten.  The county doesn't actually require that I test her, but I'm excited to see her progress from her test scores. She was very comfortable with testing and eager to test each day.  We tested for 3 days, 2 sections a day.  She is such a great student and loves to be challenged.  I cannot wait until first grade, I know that she will do so well!

She is very excited that we get a small break from school, however we will spend the summer continuing to read and review! I bought her a few new fish today as a reward and she got to go and have a slumber party with some of her best friends tonight!  Its a great start to the summer!

 Finishing up with testing!

Going to Mrs Christy's house to have a girls night with Peyton and Sydney!! So fun!

Happy Birthday to my boys

I realized today, that I didn't blog about Kinstons birthday to I figured I would do that now along with Camden's birthday blog!

My April birthday boy, Kinston turned 2!  I can't believe it, I refuse to leave the baby stage and often cradle him and rock him and treat him as if he was a newborn. He allows me and looks so sweetly into Mommys eyes. I almost melt!  But.....in reality he is 32 lbs and a growing little boy!  He doesn't look much like the baby anymore but he always will be!

He is so smart! He talks all of the time!  He says lots of words and sings songs. He knows all of his body parts, he can count 1,2,3 and is learning his colors. He eats GREAT! He is my fruit and veggie boy!  He is not picky, one bit like his brother and sister!!

He LOVES Mickey mouse, lightening McQueen and Thomas (or any train for that matter) ~ He learned from his bubba exactly how much to love trains.  He's really funny, he gathers up as many trains as we can in his arms and carries them around the house.  He's learned to be protective of his things, haha! With an older brother and sister, he has to do that!

 

Camden has talked about his birthday for months....he has waited and waited. He doesn't really think its very fun to be last in the family to have birthday.  But, boy was he excited when it finally came!!  He woke up to a table full of new trains and tracks and was very excited!  We had "angry bird" pancakes for breakfast -- he really loves to play angry birds. 

Another smart boy he is!  He can count to 20, knows all of his colors, shapes and alphabet.  He loves, loves, loves to sing and I love to listen to him. He knows all kinds of songs - but I must say that the songs that are the sweetest are about Jesus. He sings while he plays and it is so adorable, in his sweet little voice!  He loves to play with his legos and build trains or cars.  He also really loves batman, transformers and anything super hero!

He loves to play with the ipad or the iphone!  Two of his most favorite things! (As most anyone knows if they know anything about him!!!)  He can navigate the phone and do most anything he'd like!  He weighs 44 lbs :)

3 weeks, 4 days

Whew, its been a long road and we haven't quite gotten to the first curve....but I absolutely love that we are on this side of the healing process!  Today, we went to the Dr. and he was fairly pleased with Joey's progress this far...he is only taking pain meds at night and is becoming active again around the house.  Of course, he can't bend, twist or lift but at least he can sit with the kids at the dinner table or walk outside and watch them play!  The biggest answer he was waiting for today was being released to ride in the car and get out to go to church or small trips to the store or to a friends house. That was a big disappointment when the Dr. said no today, it was a bummer for both of us. So, 6 more weeks home bound. We are making the most of it and spending time together as a family could never be a bad thing! We are so thankful that God is healing his body!  The xrays today showed that everything was in place perfectly....take a look!

 Side view of the screws, rods and cage!

They did the x-ray before the staples were removed, so you can still see all of them on this, staples on the front and back. He is now a titanium man! :)

I am so proud of him!  He is my hero, he doesn' t get upset or bitter about all of this....just takes it one day at a time and never changes. I'm so thankful that God gave me him, even in the hardship. I knew when I was 12 that it would be for better or for worse!!!

Kaylee has been very intrigued by this whole thing, for the past few years she wasn't old enough to understand but this time she is very curious and asks lots of questions. She knew today was the day Daddy was going to get his staples out and was excited to look when he got home. This evening she said "Daddy, I bet you wish you never had to wear that back brace, dont you" It was so sweet, her mind is always turning and she just loves her Daddy and wants him to feel better soon! 

Photo Book

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Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

Kaylee's year in Kindergarten